Mary's Meeting and Counting Coins!!

Another busy day in 2W, and it all started with Mary's morning meeting! First, Rockin' Robin, then hackey sack greeting, followed by today's question: Do you prefer opera music or rock and roll (venn diagram style, so we have options). To my surprise, 6 second graders can honestly say they like opera! Impressive! We practiced writing our spelling words in ABC order today, and did more fact writing about Earth, Moon, and Sun in writing workshop. We also began a new workboard today while reading groups met with Ms. Worthley. Ethan was our sharer today, and showed us his super cool USA pin towel he got from his sister when she went to her Destination Imagination Global Tournament. Very cool Ethan!
After lunch, we enjoyed another stellar math meeting lead by TJ... well done! Then it was all about the money, counting coins, and strategies to make our counting easier! We played heads or tails with partners to stretch our thinking and counted coins up to and over a dollar (while recording our counting as well)! Tomorrow we'll count even more money... all the Malawi money we made selling friendship pins! Show me the money!!
Tomorrow we'll be treated to drumming and dancing workshops with our guest artist, so wear sneakers and be ready to shake it up!

Writing Workshop! Earth, Moon and Sun!

Greetings! A busy Tuesday, that's for sure! Maya started our day with a great morning meeting followed by word study. Students sorted spelling words according to how many syllables in the word and we also learned how to break apart words with lots of syllables! Next we wrote our Earth Moon Sun Fact books with the research we worked on earlier in the week! We'll finish up our illustrations tomorrow and look forward to sharing our books when they're complete!
TJ had an outstanding math meeting as well, followed by more writing... Our Book About Time! Everyone took a look at their day and wrote about it (both ways, digital and analog).... when we go to school, eat lunch, go home, go to bed, etc. Everyone began illustrating today and will finish these books tomorrow as well. Great day everyone! P.E. tomorrow... sneakers please.

Adan and TJ's Meetings and Writing About Time!

Greetings Friends! Adan started our week off with his morning meeting and "Rockin' Robin", roll the hackey sack greeting, and the clothespin game! Nice start to our day Adan! Well done! We then caught up on the buddy test we missed last Friday due to our "in house visit" to Paris, France, courtesy of garcon Marc Lauren and French Day (AWESOME)! After a quick snack, we jumped right back into our new word study principle: Syllables and how words can have one, two, three, or more syllables (but remember, to have a syllable we must ALWAYS have a vowel). More all week on syllables!
In writing workshop we wrote more facts about the Earth, Moon, and Sun, and now, have enough research to begin our "fact books" tomorrow (a very fun and interactive second grade writing project)! While we're talking about writing... we also began a writing project in math as well, using what we know about time to write our very own stories which chronicle an ordinary day in the life of a second grader. This is another fun way to practice what we know about time to the hour, half hour and quarter hour, as well as 5 or more minutes past the hour. TJ also lead us in one fantastic math meeting where we counted "days in school-in money" about 4 or 5 different ways! Well done TJ! We also practiced our skills in double digit subtraction with borrowing, as we want to keep our skills sharp and remember all the steps necessary to get the correct answer ( the "difference"). We ended the day in computers with Ms. Kidder and look forward to P.E. tomorrow (sneakers please). Letters we received from our pen pals in Malawi, Africa are posted outside our door. It's definitely worth taking a closer look to see how much work, heart, and soul went into this global outreach/service project. Again, could NOT possibly be any PROUDER of this group of caring, connected, thoughtful students!

French Day c'est Magnifique!

Another fabulous Friday friends! It all started with Olivia's morning meeting packed with the tambourine greeting, "Chicken Lips", and a game of Alibi! We were quickly joined by Mary's Dad, as today was FRENCH DAY in 2W! Marc shared his culture and some history about his school and family and what it was like growing up in France. We learned some useful french words, and how every word has a gender...cool... who knew the desk was a boy and the table was a girl? We listened to one hilarious story in french, and were treated to some sweet, delicious cake for snack, specially made for us by Marc and Mary (while listening to some french music)! You may want to try and make this cake at home with your student, so, by popular demand, we will also post Marc's french pound cake recipe! Mary helped out too, and showed us how writing the date in french is a little different than English with her very cool french calendar. We learned to count to ten, the months of the year, and the alphabet... all in french! Thanks to Marc and Mary for bringing France right into our classroom! French day was a huge success!
Later in the day, we visited the library with Ms. Kidder and checked out some new books and games.
After lunch, we enjoyed another chapter of Matilda, as she continues to endure the cruelty of her bully parents and decides to form a plan to get back (by stuffing Henry's parrot into the chimney????). We'll see what happens on Monday!
We stretched what we learned in math with double digit subtraction with "borrowing", "trading", and/or "regrouping" and worked with triple digit numbers. Concentration is key when practicing this new skill, and remembering to WRITE YOUR BORROWING is absolutely essential. We'll keep practicing this new skill. Knowing your math facts automatically is what makes working with double and triple digit numbers easy. Next week we'll spiral back into some work with time and money, calendar math and soon Emma will lead us in a new unit all about measurement! What a week everyone! Outstanding!